New Longmont mall 70 percent pre-leased

Former Twin Peaks Mall will bring new retailers to Longmont

By Tony Kindelspire

Times-Call staff writer

Posted:
05/02/2014 06:50:43 PM MDT

Updated:
05/02/2014 06:52:59 PM MDT

The latest artist's rendering of Village at the Peaks shows two restaurant pads anchoring both sides of what will be a newly constructed entrance off Hover Street, lower right. Past the restaurant sites are the "village" portion of the redevelopment. (Courtesy NewMark Merrill Mountain States)

This is an artist's rendering of what a portion of the "village" section of Longmont's Village at the Peaks will look like. Demolition of the existing Twin Peaks Mall is scheduled for July. (Courtesy NewMark Merrill Mountain States)

Two weeks before heading to the country's biggest annual retail convention, Newmark Merrill Mountain States has a story to tell about the new retail development it's building in Longmont.

And managing director and principal Allen Ginsborg can't wait to tell that story.

"We're 70 percent pre-leased — that's fantastic," Ginsborg said Friday morning. "What that's allowing us to do is to be more selective."

Ginsborg appeared before the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce's Public Policy Committee to give an update on the progress of the conversion of Twin Peaks Mall into the open-air Village at the Peaks.

Ginsborg said his company has signed several retailers new to Longmont to lease agreements with his company, but non-disclosure agreements prevent him from naming names just yet, he said. He hopes to announce some companies next week, he added.

He did say that a national fitness center chain is taking 32,000 square feet of the former Dillard's building, which will remain standing. All the rest of the mall will be demolished.

Demolition is scheduled for July, with a holiday season-2015 opening of Village at the Peaks planned, he said.

Ginsborg estimated that 70 people, both within his company and outside contractors, are working on various aspects of the redevelopment, a partnership between his company and the city of Longmont.

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He contrasted the status of his project with the redevelopment of Foothills Mall in Fort Collins, which is also a public-private project. It has run into several snags that have delayed it by more than a year, and the developer there is having trouble finding anchor tenants, Ginsborg said.

"If you don't have the anchors, the smaller tenants just won't come," he said.

The Village at the Peaks' three anchors are a 136,085-square-foot Sam's Club; a 46,626-square-foot, 12-screen, state-of-the-art Regal Entertainment Group movie theater; and a 40,600-square-foot Whole Foods. In early April, Whole Foods announced it was increasing the square footage of its Longmont store by 33 percent.

"That's a really good validation for the project,' Ginsborg said.

Having such anchors in hand give him a lot of confidence heading into the International Council of Shopping Centers convention in two weeks, he said.

The annual event draws tens of thousands of people and will give NewMark Merrill Mountain States plenty of face time in front of all types of retailers.

One of the audience members asked Ginsborg why a Sam's Club is one of the anchors — a question Ginsborg admitted he has fielded before.

But Sam's Club — owned by the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. — is considered a "best in class" retailer, he noted.

"I don't get to pick the tenants," Ginsborg said. "They get to pick me. And then pick on me after they pick me."

He said that a new shopping development of this scope — approximately $85 million, with the city chipping in up to $27.5 million worth — would not be possible without a major draw for shoppers from outside Longmont proper. He called Sam's Club "clearly the most regional retailer in this project."

"A store like that will do more sales in one year than the entire (Twin Peaks) mall did in its best year."

An aritst's rendering of the theater being built for Regal Entertainment Group at Village at the Peaks. Demolition of the Twin Peaks Mall is scheduled to start in July. (Courtesy NewMark Merrill Mountain States)

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